F 

786 


BOLTON 

MATERIAL  FOR 
SOUTHWESTERN  HISTORY 


lANCftOFT 

LIBRARY 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


U         && 


MATERIAL  FOR 

SOUTHWESTERN    HISTORY   IN 

THE  CENTRAL  ARCHIVES 

OF  MEXICO 


BY 

UKRKKKT  K.   BOLTON 


REPRINTED    FROM    THE 


VOL.  XIII.,  NO.  3 


APRIL,  1908 


{Reprinted  from  THE  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW,  Vol.  XIII.,  No.  3,  April,  1908.] 


MATERIAL   FOR   SOUTHWESTERN    HISTORY   IN   THE 
CENTRAL    ARCHIVES    OF    MEXICO1 

WHEN  we  consider  the  close  historical  relations  between  Mexico 
and  what  we  call  the  "  Southwest ",  the  chief  cause  for  surprise, 
as  regards  the  Mexican  archives,  is  not  that  they  contain  much 
material  for  Southwestern  history,  but  rather  that  this  material 
has  been  so  little  used. 

In  an  endeavor  to  present  in  brief  space  a  general  idea  of  the 
sources  of  this  class  contained  in  the  central  archives  at  the  City 
of  Mexico,  not  touching  for  the  present  upon  provincial,  ecclesias- 
tical or  private  collections,  it  seems  best  to  attempt  no  more  than  to 
name  the  principal  repositories  and  to  describe  their  contents  in  so 
far  as  they  will  admit  of  general  description.  I  can  treat  even  in 
this  general  way  only  a  part  of  the  field,  and  have  chosen,  there- 
fore, disregarding  the  demands  of  proportion,  to  devote  most  of  my 
space  to  sources  for  early  Southwestern  history,  closing  with  the 
merest  hint  of  what  there  may  be  for  recent  periods.  Incidentally 
I  shall  try  to  indicate  some  of  the  conditions  of  investigation  in 
Mexico. 

The  central  government  archives  proper  consist  of  an  Archive 
General  y  Publico  de  la  Nacion,  commonly  called  the  Archivo 
General,  and  of  separate  archives  for  each  of  the  great  secretariats 
or  executive  departments  of  the  national  government.  To  these 
should  be  added  the  manuscript  collections  in  the  Museo  Nacional 
and  the  Biblioteca  Nacional.  Most  of  the  manuscripts  in  the 

1  This  paper  may  be  regarded  as  a  preliminary  report  upon  a  comprehensive 
survey  of  the  materials  for  United  States  history  in  Mexican  archives  which  the 
writer  has  undertaken  on  behalf  of  the  Department  of  Historical  Research  in  the 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington.  A  fuller  report  in  the  form  of  a  volume 
published  by  that  institution  may  be  expected  at  a  later  time. 

My  grateful  acknowledgments  for  extensive  courtesies  and  liberal  treatment 
received  during  the  preparation  of  this  article  are  due  to  the  following  persons : 
The  Hon.  Senor  Don  Ignacio  Mariscal,  secretary,  and  the  Hon.  Senor  Don  Jose 
Algara,  sub-secretary,  of  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations ;  Dr.  Justino  Rubio, 
.director,  and  Senor  Don  Tomas  Alarcon,  paleographer,  of  the  Archivo  General  y 
Publico  ;  Senor  Lie.  Don  Genaro  Garcia,  sub-director  of  the  Museo  Nacional ; 
Dr.  Jose  M.  Vigil,  director  of  the  Biblioteca  Nacional ;  Senor  Don  Juan  Salazar, 
in  charge  of  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  War  and  Marine ;  Senor  Don 
Felipe  Camarena,  in  charge  of  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations  ; 
Senor  Don  Manuel  C.  Tolsa,  in  charge  of  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of 
Fomento ;  and  Senor  Ing.  Ignacio  Molina,  chief  of  the  department  of  cartography 
,of  the  last-named  secretariat. 


5ii  H.  E.  Bolton 

archives  of  the  secretariats  bear  dates  subsequent  to  the  Mexican 
War  of  Independence,  since  which  event  these  departments- 
have  been  established ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  by  far  the 
larger  part  of  those  in  the  other  collections  named  relate  to  the 
period  of  the  Spanish  regime.  This  clear  differentiation  of  the 
archives  reinforces  the  historical  reasons  for  choosing  the  close  of 
that  regime,  1821,  as  the  point  of  division  between  early  and  recent 
Southwestern  history.  I  write  mainly,  therefore,  of  sources  for  the 
period  before  1821. 

It  follows  from  what  has  already  been  said  that  the  public  col- 
lections at  the  capital  of  special  importance  for  early  history  are 
those  in  the  Archivo  General,  the  Museo  Nacional  and  the  Biblioteca 
Nacional.  By  far  the  most  important  of  these  is  the  first,  which, 
indeed,  is  the  largest  and  richest  collection  of  historical  material  in 
Mexico.  If  space  would  permit,  a  sketch  of  the  varied  and  some- 
times pathetic  history  of  this  archive  would  be  instructive.  Since 
this  is  impossible,  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  idea  of  founding  it  origi- 
nated in  1790  with  the  Viceroy  Revilla  Gigedo,  and  that  it  was 
established  by  the  Republic  in  1823,  having  for  its  basis  the  archive 
of  the  Secretariat  of  the  Viceroys,2  which  still  constitutes  its  most 
important  single  element.  In  this  connection  let  it  be  noted  that 
there  is  little  ground,  unless  it  be  an  unwarranted  faith  that  in 
olden  times  all  decrees  of  Spanish  kings  were  executed,  for  Ban- 
croft's remark  that  in  the  Archivo  General  are  preserved  great 
quantities  of  material  "  collected  from  all  parts  of  the  country  by 
order  of  Carlos  IV."3  Quite  to  the  contrary,  it  appears  after  much 
study  directed  to  this  point,  that,  in  spite  of  this  and  later  orders 
to  the  same  effect,  provincial  collections  have  not  been  drawn  upon 
to  any  considerable  extent  in  the  formation  of  the  Archivo  General.. 

2  A  brief  printed  sketch  of  the  Archivo  General  by  Manuel  Rivera   Cambas 
is  in  Mexico  Pintoresco,  Artistico  y  Monumental  (Mexico,  1880),  I.  16-17;  one 
by  Ignacio  Rayon  is  in  Diccionario  Universal  de  Historia  y  de  Geografia  (Mexico, 
1854),  V.  978-983  ;  a  still  briefer  sketch  by  Professor  George  P.  Garrison  is  in; 
The  Nation,  May  30,   1901.     None  of  these  articles  gives  a  satisfactory  account 
of  the  origin  and  elements  of  the  archive.     Original  correspondence   relative  to 
the  first  attempt  to  found  it  is  contained  in  volume  267  of  Seccion  de  Historia, 
Archivo  General.     This  volume  is  entitled  "  Archivo  General,  Su  Establecimiento 
en  Chapultepec,  1788-1819".     For  data  on  this  subject  see  also  the  files  of  corre- 
spondence in  the  sections  of  the  Archivo  General  named  Reales  Cedulas  y  Ordenes, 
and  Correspondencia  de  los  Virreyes.     Valuable  manuscript  reports  by  different 
archiveros  on  the  contents  and  condition  of  the  archive  of  the  Viceroy's  Secre- 
tariat at  the  end  of  the  Spanish  regime  and  on  the  Archivo   General  y  Publico 
since  its  foundation  in   1823,  are  contained  in  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of 
Foreign  Relations,  section  Archivo  General.      Similar  matter  is  contained  in  sev- 
eral memorials  to  the  Mexican   Congress  by  the  different  secretaries  of  the   De- 
partment of  Relations. 

3  Bancroft,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  p.  21. 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  5 1 2 

This  fact  is  significant,  for  it  offers  the  prospect  that  in  certain 
of  the  local  archives  there  may  yet  be  found  important  stores  of 
material.  While,  as  has  been  said,  the  larger  part  of  the  collection 
in  the  Archive  General  relates  to  the  period  before  1821,  only  a 
small  part  of  that  which  does  not  is  of  importance  for  the  history 
of  the  United  States. 

This  archive  is  under  the  supervision  of  the  Secretariat  of 
Foreign  Relations,  and  permission  to  work  in  it  is  secured,  by 
foreigners,  from  that  department.  It  is  housed  in  the  southwestern 
portion  of  the  vast  building  known  as  the  Palacio  Nacional,  in  rooms 
adjacent  to  those  formerly  occupied  by  the  Secretariat  of  the  Vice- 
roys— quarters  that  are  altogether  inadequate  for  present  needs.  In 
summer  it  is  usually  open  from  7  :3O  a.  m.  to  1 130  p.  m.,  and  in 
winter  from  8  :oo  a.  m.  to  i  .-30  p.  m.  To  those  who  are  properly 
introduced,  wide  liberties  are  given  to  search  among  the  volumes 
and  legajos.  Indeed,  if  this  were  not  the  case,  little  progress  could 
be  made  under  present  circumstances. 

The  collection,  which  consists  of  some  thirty-five  thousand  bound 
volumes  of  manuscripts  and  bundles  enough  to  form  at  least  as 
many  more,  is,  besides  being  large,  extremely  miscellaneous,  and 
therefore  difficult  to  describe  in  general  terms.  Enough  material 
to  form  perhaps  twenty  thousand  volumes  is  piled  ceiling-high  in 
a  board  crib  in  the  middle  of  the  main  hall,  and,  though  partly 
classified  and  bound,  is  at  present  almost  inaccessible.  Difficulties 
of  research  are  increased  through  lack  of  a  catalogue,  either  printed 
or  unprinted.4 

The  archive  is  divided  into  sections,  the  basis  of  division  being 
subjects  rather  than  the  offices  from  which  the  papers  have  ema- 
nated. The  general  arrangement  of  these  sections  is  chronological, 
with  dates  on  the  backs  or  title-pages  of  the  volumes  or  on  the 
labels  of  the  legajos.  This  arrangement  greatly  facilitates  investiga- 
tion but  it  is  frequently  violated,  and  the  dates  cannot  always  be 
relied  upon.  Many  of  the  volumes — in  some  cases  entire  sections — 
have  tables  of  contents,  called  indices.  These,  when  well  made, 
which  is  by  no  means  always  the  case,  enable  one  readily  to  ascer- 
tain the  general  nature  of  the  contents  of  a  volume. 

Seven  sections,  in  particular,  of  the  Archivo  General  have  great 
importance  for  the  early  history  of  the  Southwest.  The  two  most 

4  Material  for  the  formation  of  a  catalogue  is  gradually  being  accumulated  by 
the  archive  force,  but  the  prospects  for  a  speedy  completion  of  it  are  not  good, 
unless  the  force  be  materially  increased.  There  are,  it  is  true,  some  special 
indices  for  official  use  but  they  are  too  general  to  be  of  much  service  for  historical 
investigation. 


513  H.  E.  Bolton 

systematically  arranged  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  generally 
useful  are  those  containing  the  royal  cedulas  and  orders  to  the 
viceroys  and  the  communications  of  the  viceroys  to  the  court  of 
Spain.5  These  two  sections,  taken  together,  form  the  best  single 
documentary  guide  to  the  history  of  a  given  province,  as  well  as 
to  the  general  administrative  history  of  New  Spain,  for  most  matters 
of  importance  became  the  subjects  of  correspondence  between  the 
viceroys  and  the  court.  The  compilation  of  these  series  in  their 
present  form  was  begun  about  1773  by  Peramas,  the  viceroy's 
secretary.  During  his  long  term  the  arranging  of  current  docu- 
ments was  kept  up,  and  when,  after  an  interval,  Antonio  Bonilla 
became  secretary,  he  went  back  and  arranged  apparently  all  of  the 
materials  of  these  and  some  other  classes  that  be  could  find.  The 
documents  are  filed  in  chronological  order,  and  the  volumes  have, 
besides  tables  of  contents,  alphabetical  prontuarios  or  brief  subject- 
indexes,  which,  in  general,  are  very  well  made. 

Of  the  royal  cedulas  and  orders  there  are  two  series.  The 
first,  of  243  bound  volumes,  contains  the  originals  or  principals  of 
cedulas  and  orders  directed  to  the  viceroys.  The  second,  of  176 
volumes,  is  very  miscellaneous  and  fragmentary  but  it  contains, 
besides  extraneous  matter,  (a)  principals  of  ccdulas  and  orders 
directed  to  the  audiencia  of  Mexico,  (b)  duplicates  of  some  of 
those  sent  to  the  viceroys  and  (c)  libros  de  asiento  or  record-books, 
in  which  cedulas  and  orders  of  both  classes  are  copied. 

The  first  series,  which  is  by  far  the  more  important  from  our 
present  viewpoint,  covers  the  period  from  1609  to  1821,  being  fairly 
complete  after  1643.  These  royal  communications  deal  with  every 
conceivable  kind  of  subject.  In  the  prontuarios  the  headings  Cali- 
fornias,  New  Mexico,  Texas,  Louisiana  and  Provincias  Internas 
occupy  a  prominent  place,  and,  taken  together  with  such  headings 
as  explorations,  colonization,  missions,  presidios,  Indians,  defense, 
foreigners  and  appointments,  guide  the  way  to  much  of  the  early 
history  of  the  Southwest. 

Besides  the  cedulas  and  orders  that  are  filed  in  this  regular 
series,  a  good  many  principals  are  to  be  found  in  other  places,  with 
papers  to  which  they  are  directly  related.  Of  duplicates,  separate 
series  have  been  formed  for  the  history  of  the  Provincias  Internas 
for  the  period  between  1750  and  1793,  and  for  the  history  of  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  For  these  excellent  and  useful  compila- 

5  They  are  named  respectively,  Reales  Cedulas  y  -Ordenes,  and  Correspondencia 
de  los  Virreyes.  These  titles  are  obviously  too  broad,  for  besides  these  there  are 
other  royal  cedulas  and  orders  and  other  classes  of  viceroys'  correspondence. 

AM.   HIST.    KEY.,  VOl.   XITI. — 34. 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  5  1 4 

tions  we  have  to  thank  that  best  of  viceroy's  secretaries,  Antonio 
Bonilla,  or,  perhaps,  his  master  with  the  organizing  genius,  the 
Viceroy  Revilla  Gigedo.  The  former  compilation  consists  of  five 
large  volumes,  until  recently  scattered  and  forgotten,  among  the 
volumes  of  the  second  series  of  royal  cedulas  and  orders  mentioned, 
but  now  reunited.6  In  them  the  indices  cite  separately  the  docu- 
ments relating  to  the  Provincias  Internas  as  a  whole,  and  likewise 
those  for  each  of  the  provinces  of  New  Mexico,  Texas,  Nuevo 
Santander,  Nuevo  Leon,  Nueva  Viscaya,  Coahuila,  Sonora  and 
Sinaloa.7  For  the  period  covered,  the  five  volumes  are  of  inestim- 
able value,  and  their  tables  of  contents  are  deserving  of  publication 
entire,  as  a  partial  bibliography.8  The  compilation  of  cedulas  con- 
cerning the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  is  still  scattered.  Volumes  I. 
and  II.  have  recently  been  brought  together  from  different  parts 
of  the  Archivo  General,  while  III.  and  IV.  are  in  the  Biblioteca 
Nacional.9 

The  regular  file  of  communications  from  the  viceroys  to  the 
court  of  Spain  does  not  begin,  unfortunately,  until  1755,  m  the 
administration  of  the  Marques  de  las  Amarillas.10  From  that  time 
to  1821  they  fill  244  volumes.  They  are  arranged  in  three  series, 
which,  by  the  way,  have  no  discoverable  distinction.11  These  letters- 
and  reports  of  the  viceroys,  found  here  in  the  form  of  minutes  or 
of  copies,  according  to  the  care  of  the  secretaries,  are  even  more- 
important  than  the  royal  cedulas  and  orders,  for  they  not  only 
present  the  cisatlantic  viewpoint,  but,  being  based  upon  detailed1 

°  Besides  containing  this  compilation  relating  to  the  Provincias  Internas,  the 
second  series  of  cedulas  supplements  the  first  in  two  other  ways.  First,  the  libros 
de  asiento  contain  documents  as  early  as  1585,  and  second,  in  this  collection  there 
are  cedulas  and  orders  directed  to  the  audiencias.  The  arrangement  of  the  series 
is  so  very  bad,  however,  that  to  use  it  would  be  difficult. 

7  The  title  of  the  series  is  "  Coleccion  de  Reales  Ordenes  y  Cedulas   Dupli- 
cadas  sobre  Provincias  Ynternas  ". 

8  In  the  indices  reference  is  made  in  each  case  to  the  series  of  principals,  and, 
even  if  a  duplicate  is  lacking,  the  principal  is  cited. 

9  The  title  of  the  first  volume  is  "  Coleccion  de  Reales   Ordenes,  y   Cedulas 
Sobre   Expatriacion   de   los   Regulares   de   la    Compa.   de   Jesus,   y   demas   Asuntos 
Relativas,  Dirigidas  al  Exmo.  Sor.  Virrey  Marques  de  Croix  en  los  Anos  de  1767, 
68,   69,   y   70".     The  titles -of  the   other  volumes   vary   slightly   from   this.     The 
series,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it,  will  be  listed  in  the  forthcoming  catalogue  of  books., 
on  jurisprudence  issued  by  the  Biblioteca. 

10  The   Secretariat  of  the  Viceroys  was,   in  its   origin,   only  a   private   office.. 
Its  first   official  corps  of  three   was  organized   in    1757.     This   explains,   perhaps,, 
why  the  file  of  viceroys'  correspondence  begins  no   earlier.      See  Juan  de   Dios 
Uribe,  "Informe  pedido  por  un  apunte  ",  etc.,  in  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of" 
Foreign  Relations,   Seccion  de  Archivo  General,  ca.ra   1823-1827. 

11  Each  of  the  three  series  contains  the  three  main  classes  of  correspondence,, 
namely,  that  sent  por  via  reservada,  through  the  secretary  of  the  Universal  Office 
of  Marine  and   Indies ;   that   sent   through  the   Council   of  the   Indies ;    and  that 
addressed  to  the  different  department  secretaries. 


515  H.  E.  Bolton 

reports  from  provincial  governors,  missionaries  and  other  local 
authorities,  they  are  nearer  than  the  royal  cedillas  to  the  spirit  of 
provincial  affairs.  For  certain  periods  it  was  customary  to  file 
with  the  minutes  of  correspondence  the  originals  or  copies  of  docu- 
ments that  were  transmitted  to  Spain.  Would  that  this  had  been 
a  constant  practice !  Of  special  value  on  the  Southwest  are  the 
monthly  extracts  from  the  local  reports  of  affairs  in  the  Californias 
and  the  Provincias  Internas  which  were  more  or  less  regularly  sent 
by  the  viceroy  to  the  king  during  the  period  between  1770  and 

I777-12 

After  the  establishment  in  1777  of  the  commandancy-general  at 
Chihuahua,  practically  independent  of  the  viceroy,  the  latter  official's 
correspondence  suddenly  lessens  in  value  for  the  Southwest.  From 
that  time  forth  we  shall  have  to  look  to  Spain  or  to  the  remains  of 
the  archive  of  the  commandancy-general  for  some  of  the  most 
important  correspondence  relative  to  the  Provincias  Internas. 

As  a  companion  to  the  compilation  of  duplicate  royal  cedulas 
and  orders  concerning  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  Bonilla  formed 
a  similar  one  of  the  letters  of  the  viceroys  to  the  court  of  Spain 
relative  to  the  same  subject.  This  series  has  strayed  to  the  Biblio- 
teca  Nacional.13 

Scarcely  less  valuable  than  the  two  series  just  described,  but, 
because  of  their  miscellaneous  character,  infinitely  more  difficult 
to  treat  satisfactorily  in  brief  space,  are  the  sections  called  Historia, 
Provincias  Internas,  Californias  and  Misiones.  These  together 
comprise  about  nine  hundred  volumes,  of  whose  contents  perhaps 
one-half  relates  to  territory  that  is  within  the  United  States. 

The  nucleus  of  the  history  section  is  the  thirty-two  volume 
series  of  "  Memorias  de  Nueva  Espana  ",  compiled  in  1791-1792 
by  Fray  Francisco  Garcia  Figueroa,  at  the  order  of  the  king  and 
under  the  direction  of  the  viceroy.14  These  volumes  are  composed 

12  A  considerable  portion  of  these  noticias  of  Texas,  Louisiana  and  New 
Mexico  are  copied  in  the  Talamantes-Pichardo  Papers  contained  in  volumes  298 
and  299  of  Seccion  de  Historia,  Archive  General. 

13 1  cannot  say  that  the  three  volumes  preserved  there  form  the  complete 
series  ;  indeed,  apparently  they  do  not,  although  they  are  numbered  consecutively, 
one,  two  and  three.  The  main  title  of  the  first  is  "  Libro  i°.  de  Cartas  Escritas 
al  Exmo.  Sor.  Conde  de  Aranda  ".  The  titles  of  the  others  vary  slightly  from  this. 

14  For  a  brief  statement  of  the  circumstances  of  their  compilation,  see  the 
article  by  Professor  Garrison,  cited  above,  page  511,  note  2.  For  a  fuller  state- 
ment, see  a  report  dated  July  27,  1853,  by  the  noted  Mexican  scholar,  Manuel 
Orosco  y  Berra,  in  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations,  Seccion 
de  Mexico,  caxa  1849-1853.  The  occasion  of  this  report  was  the  offer  for  sale 
in  New  York,  by  a  Spanish  editor,  of  what  purported  to  be  the  original  of 
volume  I.  of  the  "  Memorias  ",  together  with  what  was  called  the  original  manu- 
script of  Morfi's  history  of  Texas.  Since  volume  I.  of  the  "Memorias"  was 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  516 

of  copies  of  documents  of  great  general  importance — the  monu- 
menta,  so  to  speak — for  the  history  of  New  Spain  down  to  the 
time  of  their  compilation.  Since  they  are  relatively  well-known, 
they  need  no  mention  here  further  than  to  say  that  of  their  number 
four  are  devoted  to  New  Mexico,  two  to  Upper  California,  two  to 
Texas  and  as  many  more  to  territory  just  on  the  other  side  of  the 
border  and  closely  associated  with  the  United  States  frontier.  To 
this  nucleus  there  have  been  added  from  time  to  time  about  five 
hundred  volumes,  mainly  of  original  documents,  dealing  with 
various  parts  of  New  Spain.15  The  section  of  Provincias  Internas, 
comprising  264  volumes,  is  so  called  because  it  relates  primarily  to 
the  northern  provinces.  A  considerable  part  of  the  papers  con- 
tained in  it  emanated  from  the  division  of  the  Viceroy's  Secretariat 
devoted  especially  to  the  administration  of  these  provinces.  Tech- 
nically, the  Provincias  Internas  did  not  include  the  Californias, 
Louisiana  or  Florida,  but  there  is  in  the  section  a  good  deal  of 
matter  relative  to  the  first  two.  It  contains  also,  for  obvious  rea- 
sons, a  great  deal  of  material  concerning  San  Bias  and  the  Philip- 
pine Islands.  Probably  the  most  distinctive  class  of  material  in 
this  section  is  the  correspondence  of  the  viceroy  with  the  com- 
mandant-general of  the  Provincias  Internas  (or,  when  the  com- 
mandancy  was  divided,  with  the  commandants  of  the  eastern  and 
the  western  provinces)  and  with  the  provincial  governors.  Such 
material,  however,  is  not  lacking  from  the  other  series.  The  section 
of  Californias  contains  nearly  all  kinds  of  matter  for  Antigua  and 
Nueva  California,  some  of  it  dating  nearly  to  the  time  of  the 
American  occupation,  besides  considerable  matter  for  New  Mexico 
and  Texas.  The  section  of  Misiones  is  confined  largely  to  the 
relations  of  missions  with  the  central  secular  authorities,  but  it 
covers  all  New  Spain. 

For  present  purposes  these  four  sections  may  be  considered 
together,  for,  aside  from  such  differences  of  emphasis  as  have  been 
indicated,  their  contents  are  similar  and  overlap  in  a  thousand  places. 
It  is  in  these  sections  especially  that  one  must  look  for  a  large  part 
of  the  important  correspondence  of  the  viceroys  with  the  local 

then  lacking  from  the  set  in  the  Archive  General,  the  government  contemplated 
purchasing  the  one  advertised,  believing  that  it  was  the  identical  volume  that  had 
been  lost.  The  missing  volume  was  replaced  in  1882  by  a  copy  made  in  Spain. 
(See  correspondence  in  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations, 
Seccion  de  Archive  General,  under  the  dates  given.)  Its  loss  cannot  be  charged, 
in  the  customary  way,  to  the  vandalism  of  the  American  army  that  occupied  the 
city  in  1847,  for  Cubas's  report  of  1824  notes  the  absence  of  the  volume.  This  is 
not  intended,  however,  as  a  denial  that  the  American  army  carried  off  some 
documents  from  the  Mexican  archives,  for  there  is  good  evidence  that  they  did  so. 
15  There  are  at  present  date,  December  5,  1907,  530  volumes  in  the  section. 


517  H.  E.  Bolton 

authorities.  But,  instead  of  being  made  up  of  chronological  or 
otherwise  systematic 'files  of  correspondence  between  certain  offices, 
the  volumes  are,  for  the  most  part,  collections  of  expedientes,  an 
expedience  being  a  group  of  papers  relating  to  a  single  subject.  In 
these  expediences  records  of  local  procedure  and  correspondence 
are  brought  together  and  joined  to  the  records  of  related  procedure 
in  Mexico  or  even  in  Spain.  The  result  is  that  a  single  e.vpediente 
may  contain  all  of  the  documents  necessary  for  tracing  the  history 
of  a  given  matter  from  beginning  to  end.  Such  correspondence 
as  could  not  be  fitted  into  e.vpedientes  is  scattered  through  the 
series  in  a  very  miscellaneous  way,  with  here  and  there  well  unified 
groups. 

Contained  in  these  e.vpedientes  or  existing  separately,  as  the 
case  may  be,  there  are  found  several  general  classes  of  material 
for  the  history  of  the  provinces  that  constituted  what  is  now  the 
Southwest.  Some  of  the  most  important  are  the  following: 
(i)  diaries  of  exploring  expeditions  or  other  entradas  into  the 
north  country;  (2)  autos  of  the  founding  of  missions  and  other 
settlements;  (3)  correspondence  of  the  viceroys  with  the  governors, 
missionaries  and  other  local  authorities ;  (4)  correspondence  of  the 
viceroys  with  the  commandant-general  or,  when  the  jurisdiction  of 
this  official  was  divided,  with  the  commandants  of  the  eastern  and 
western  Internal  Provinces;  (5)  autos  of  the  residencias  of  gov- 
ernors and  of  "other  special  investigations  into  local  administration. 
Besides  these  and  perhaps  other  classes,  there  are  countless  e.r- 
pedientes concerning  special  subjects.  These  kinds  of  material  are 
found,  in  general,  for  all  of  the  northern  provinces  except  Florida 
and  Louisiana,  to  the  end  of  the  Spanish  regime,  though  it  would 
be  impossible,  perhaps,  to  find  a  complete  file  of  any  one  class  of 
material  for  any  single  province. 

In  the  four  sections  under  consideration  are  the  originals, 
which  will  never  lose  their  value,  of  a  large  part  of  the  documents 
copied  in  the  "  Memorias  de  Nueva  Espafia",  as  well  of  course  as 
of  thousands  of  others.  This  is  not  true  to  any  great  extent  in 
cases  where  the  documents  were  copied  from  the  provincial  or 
ecclesiastical  archives,  for,  as  has  already  been  said,  these  collections, 
have  not  to  any  considerable  degree  found  their  way  into  the 
Archive  General.16  In  view  of  the  gigantic  work  of  collecting 
done  by  H.  H.  Bancroft  and  of  the  impression  abroad  that  he  may 
have  got  all  there  is  to  be  had,  it  is  in  point  to  remark  here  that  it 

18  Notable  exceptions  to  the  last  assertion  are  the  1,200  or  1,300  volumes  of 
papers  from  the  Inquisition  archives,  and  the  Jesuit  records  contained  in  the 
Misiones  section. 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  5  1 8 

appears  that  he  copied  little  or  nothing  in  the  Archive  General,  and 
that  therefore  he  used  few  or  none  of  the  originals  which  I  mention. 
This  is  said,  not  with  any  thought  of  disparagement  of  the  great 
feat  of  collecting  accomplished  by  Bancroft,  but,  quite  to  the  con- 
trary, to  choose  the  most  pointed  way  of  illustrating  the  value  of 
the  yet  unconquered  worlds  of  material  in  this  storehouse. 

A  large  portion  of  the  correspondence  of  the  viceroys  with  the 
military  chiefs  during  the  Mexican  War  of  Independence  (1810- 
1821)  is  filed  in  the  extensive  section17  called  Historia:  Operaciones 
de  Guerra,  which  is  the  seventh  of  the  sections  which  have  been 
mentioned  as  being  of  primary  importance  from  our  present  stand- 
point. In  it  there  are  three  groups  of  correspondence  that  deserve 
especial  mention,  even  in  so  general  a  sketch  as  this,  (i)  That  of 
the  viceroy  with  Manuel  de  Salcedo,  governor  of  Texas,  from  1809 
to  1813,  is  highly  valuable  for  the  affairs  of  the  Texas-Louisiana 
frontier,  including  the  first  stage  of  the  Gutierrez-Magee  expedi- 
tion.18 (2)  For  both  the  early  and  the  later  stages  of  this  episode, 
as  well  as  for  the  Mina  expedition  and  other  notable  doings  of  the 
period  from  1811  to  1821,  there  is  much  of  value  in  the  cor- 
respondence of  Arredondo,  commandant  of  the  eastern  Internal 
Provinces.19  Among  the  papers  in  this  correspondence  is  the 
original  report  of  the  bloody  battle  of  the  Medina,  of  August  18, 
1813.  (3)  In  the  same  section  is  a  four-volume  series  called 
"  Notas  Diplomaticas  ",  which  contains,  primarily,  diplomatic  and 
consular  correspondence  concerning  the  United  States  for  the  period 
between  1809  and  1821.  Some  of  the  subjects  of  interest  in  it  are 
the  later  doings  of  Bernardo  de  Gutierrez  and  Toledo,  the  Mina 
expedition,  Lallemand,  Aury,  and  James  Long.20  In  volume  IV.  of 
this  series  the  chief  subjects  of  correspondence  are  a  rumored  plan 

17  It  contains   750  or  800  volumes.     Technically,   it  is  a  part  of   Seccion   de 
Historia,  but  it  is  not  so  treated  in  practice  and  may  be  considered  as  a  separate 
section. 

18  An  excellent  calendar  of  these  papers,  prepared  by  Mr.  E.  W.  Winkler,  is 
contained  in  the  Thirty-First  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture, 
Insurance,  Statistics  and  History  of  the  State  of  Texas,  part  n.,  1906.     They  were 
used  by  Dr.  W.  F.  McCaleb  in  the  preparation  of  his  article  on  the  "  First  Period 
of   the    Gutierrez-Magee    Expedition ",    which    appeared    in    the    Quarterly   of   the 
Texas  State  Historical  Association,  IV.  218-230.      Dr.  McCaleb  evidently  missed 
the   Arredondo   correspondence   in   the   same   section,    mentioned   below. 

"Volume  I.  (Operaciones  de  Guerra,  56)  contains  correspondence  for  1811- 
1816;  II.  (O.  de  G.,  57)  for  1811-1820,  but  mainly  for  1811-1812;  III.  (O.  de  G., 
58)  for  1812-1813;  IV.  (O.  de  G.,  59)  for  1813-1820. 

20 1  may  mention  here,  somewhat  out  of  order,  the  bundle  of  documents  in 
the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations  which  deal  with  the  capture 
and  imprisonment  of  Long  and  his  men.  They  are  in  Seccion  de  Asuntos  Inter- 
nacionales,  caxa  1817-1824.  The  bundle  contains  a  number  of  papers  taken  from 
Long  after  his  capture. 


519  H.  E.  Bolton 

of  Americans  to  invade  New  Mexico  in  1818-1819,  and  correspond- 
ing plans  of  the  Spanish  government  to  defend  that  province. 
Taken  together  these  three  groups  of  documents  contain  much  of 
value  for  the  restless  period  of  southwestward  migration  and  of 
filibustering  projects  directed  toward  the  Southwest  between  1810 
and  1821.  But  it  must  not  be  inferred  that,  because  other  docu- 
ments on  this  period  have  not  been  specifically  mentioned,  there  are 
no  others.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  great  many  are  contained  in  the 
volumes  which  I  have  been  able  to  describe  in  general  terms. 

The  large  section  of  Tierras  probably  contains  a  great  deal  of 
matter  relative  to  land  grants  within  the  southwestern  part  of  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  sources  of  a  wider  historical  bearing,  but 
the  restrictions  placed  upon  its  use  are  such  as  to  have  made  it  thus 
far  impossible  for  me  to  consult  it.  Were  its  contents  known  to 
historical  investigators,  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  section  would 
take  rank  in  importance  with  those  described  above. 

Besides  these  seven  (or  eight)  sections  of  first  importance,  there 
is  a  larger  number  that  contain  either  (a)  a  smaller  amount  or  only 
occasional  matter  of  direct  bearing  on  the  Southwest  or  (b)  data 
for  studying  the  Spanish  provincial  administrative  system  in  general. 

Of  the  first  class  are  to  be  noted  the  sections  or  series  of  Marina, 
Oficio  de  Soria,  Obras  Publicas,  Inquisicion,  Impresos  Oficiales, 
Bandos,  Ordenanzas,  Real  Caxa  and  Yndiferente  de  Guerra.  Seccion 
de  Marina,  which  comprises  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  volumes, 
contains,  primarily,  reports  of  marine  and  port  officials,  including 
sometimes  consuls  in  foreign  countries,  especially  those  in  New 
Orleans,  to  the  viceroys,  and  after  the  revolution  to  the  Department 
of  Marine.  In  them  matters  of  commerce  occupy  first  place.  Con- 
cerning this  subject  there  are  reports  of  entry  and  clearance  of 
vessels,  ship-registers,  port  and  fair  regulations  and  much  matter 
relative  to  the  conduct  of  the  Philippine  trade.  Filed  with  such 
documents  concerning  legitimate  commerce,  there  are  many  reports 
of  contraband  or  otherwise  illegal  trade  in  Mexican  ports.  In  both 
the  legitimate  and  the  illegal  trade  American  vessels  figure  promi- 
nently at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth.  The  volumes  of  this  section  which  are  marked 
San  Bias  contain  much  matter  relative  to  the  movement  of  vessels 
up  and  down  the  Pacific  coast.  Mixed  with  these  commercial 
affairs  are  a  good  many  documents  of  political  and  military  bearing, 
several  of  them  touching  the  eighteenth-century  history  of  Florida. 
One  volume  of  the  series  called  Oficio  de  Soria  also  contains 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  520 

several  reports,  like  those  mentioned  above,  concerning  illegal  trade 
by  American  vessels  (1809-1811).  In  addition  the  series  contains 
a  few  papers  that  relate  to  the  eighteenth-century  history  of  New 
Mexico  and  Texas.  The  sections  of  Impresos  Oficiales,  Ordenanzas, 
and  Bandos,  supplement  other  files  by  containing  many  cedulas, 
viceroys'  decrees,  ordinances  and  other  documents  that  were  of 
such  general  bearing  as  to  be  given  a  circular  character.  In  Obras 
Publicas  there  are  occasional  expedientes  of  interest  to  us  con- 
cerning the  construction  of  public  works.  For  example,  in  the  first 
volume  there  is  one  relative  to  the  erection  of  the  presidio  and  other 
public  buildings  at  San  Francisco  in  1778.  The  1,200  or  1,300 
volumes  of  papers  from  the  archives  of  the  Inquisition  contain  a 
little  matter  of  specific  bearing  on  the  Southwest.  Probably  most 
of  it,  except  what  may  relate  to  California,  is  listed  in  the  report 
prepared  in  1807  for  the  Louisiana  Boundary  Commission  by 
Torrecilla  and  DeNaxera,  secretaries  of  the  Holy  Office.  This 
report  is  in  volume  301  of  the  history  section.  In  the  volumes  of 
Real  Caxa  devoted  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Chihuahua  are  to  be  found 
documents  dealing  with  the  finances  of  the  provinces  comprised  in 
Provincias  Internas.21 

Some  thirty-five  sections,  or  series  not  technically  called  sections, 
forming  a  large  part  of  the  bulk  of  the  archive,  while  of  great  value 
for  the  history  of  the  interior  of  Mexico,  are  of  interest  from  our 
present  viewpoint  mainly  as  illustrating  the  Spanish  provincial  ad- 
ministration in  general.  The  names  of  most  of  them  are  given  in 
a  foot-note.22  I  have  not  been  able  to  examine  every  one  of  these 
sections  volume  by  volume,  and  it  may  be  that  they  contain  oc- 
casional documents  of  direct  bearing  on  the  United  States,  but  the 
aggregate  amount  of  such  is  evidently  not  large.  It  .must  be  re- 
membered that  the  value  for  the  Southwest  of  documents  of  such 

21  It  would  seem  that  the  sections  of  Intendencias,  Sublegados,  Ayuntamientos 
and  Alcaldes  Mayores,  which  are  composed  of  the  correspondence  of  the  viceroys 
with    or    about    these    administrative    agencies,    should    contain    matter    of    direct 
bearing  on  the  Southwest,  but  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  examine  them — the 
volumes  are  in  a  large  measure  inaccessible  at  present — I  have  found  nothing  of 
this  character. 

22  The   series   entitled :    Indies,    Encomiendas,    Clero    Regular,    Clero    Secular, 
Bienes    de     Comunidad,     Temporalidades,     Templos    y     Conventos,     Cofradias     y 
Archicofradfas,  Matrimonios,   Registro  de  Fianzas,   Real  Fisco,   Salinas,   Minerfa, 
Informes  de  Fonseca  y  Urrutia,  Real  Audiencia,  Real  Acuerdo,  Civil,  Intestados. 
and  Infidencias,  are  accessible.      The  following,  which  are  of  similar  value,  and 
perhaps  others,  are  in  the  crib  mentioned  formerly  and  are  only  partly  accessible- 
at    present :    Judicial,    Tribunal    de    la    Acordada,    Arzobispo    y    Obispos,    Media 
Annata,  Bula  de  Santa  Cruzada,  Real  Armada,  Artilleria,   Presidarios,   Comisaria 
General,  Casa  de  Moneda,  Tesorerias,  Hacienda,  Tribunal  del  Consulado,  Aduanas,. 
Alcabalas,  Peages,  Renta  de  Tabaco  and  Fabrica  de  Polvora. 


521  H.  E.  Bollon 

a  character  is  greatly  lessened  by  the  fact  that  the  Spanish  admin- 
istrative system  reached  the  distant  and  sparsely  settled  provinces 
•of  the  north  only  in  a  much  modified  and  greatly  attenuated  form. 

Turning  now  from  the  Archivo  General,  the  manuscripts  in  the 
Museo  Nacional  and  the  Biblioteca  Nacional  may  be  designated  as 
special  collections,  unrelated  and  fragmentary,  that  have  been 
acquired  as  odds  and  ends  in  various  ways. 

The  chief  materials  in  the  Museo  for  the  history  of  the  South- 
west, or,  indeed,  for  any  part  of  the  United  States,  are  Franciscan 
mission  papers,  of  which  many  are  of  great  value.  They  are  con- 
tained primarily  in  three  groups,  known  as  the  Lancaster- Jones 
Collection,  the  Fischer  Collection  and  the  Franciscan  Convent 
Papers.  Notable  in  the  first  are  the  four  quarto  volumes  of  Fran- 
ciscan correspondence  called  "  Documentos  Relatives  a  las  Misiones 
de  Californias  ".  Their  contents  are  mainly  original  correspondence 
•of  missionaries  in  the  field  and  of  various  colleges  and  convents 
with  the  central  Franciscan  authorities.  The  documents  deal 
largely  with  Upper  California  between  1769  and  1800,  but  touch 
also  New  Mexico  and  Texas.  They  clearly  came  from  the  central 
Franciscan  archives,  by  what  route  I  cannot  say.  In  the  same  col- 
lection there  are  two  octavo  volumes  of  mission  correspondence 
which  have  the  same  title  as  the  quarto  series,  and  whose  contents 
are,  to  some  extent,  copies  of  documents  found  in  the  original 
in  that  series.  In  the  Fischer  Collection  there  is  a  volume  compiled 
"by  Fray  Rafael  Verger  under  the  title  "  Coleccion  y  Trasunto  de 
Varies  Escritos,  Alegatos,  Ynformes,  Memoriales,  y  Cartas  ".  It 
is  a  rare  set  of  California  mission  documents  for  that  most  interest- 
ing period  of  beginnings,  1771-1774.  The  Franciscan  Convent 
Papers  contain,  besides  a  large  number  of  administration-books  of 
relatively  small  value,  enough  loose  papers,  mainly  correspondence, 
to  form  a  hundred  or  more  large  volumes ;  but  they  are  so  dis- 
ordered that  it  would  take  an  expert  several  months  to  arrange  and 
describe  them  properly.  They  come  mainly  from  the  archive  of  the 
Franciscan  commissary-general  of  New  Spain  and  from  the  col- 
leges of  San  Fernando,  San  Gregorio  and  Santo  Evangelio.  They 
are  much  more  valuable  for  the  history  of  missions  in  Mexico  and 
the  Philippines  than  for  those  in  the  United  States,  but  they  con- 
tain, nevertheless,  besides  much  matter  of  a  general  bearing  on 
Franciscan  polity,  a  good  deal  of  specific  bearing  on  the  missions  of 
'California,  New  Mexico  and  Texas. 

The  recent  preparation  of  a  detailed  bibliography  of  materials 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  522 

in  the  central  public  archives  of  Mexico  for  the  history  of  Alta 
California  between  1768  and  1785  has  demonstrated  that  these 
collections  in  the  Museo  Nacional,  together  with  some  of  the  sec- 
tions of  the  Archive  General,  contain  an  enormous  amount  of 
unused  material  of  highest  importance  for  early  California  history. 

Besides  these  Franciscan  documents,  the  Ramirez  Papers  deserve 
mention.  These  papers,  most  of  which  recently  came  from  the 
library  of  the  late  Alfredo  Chavero,  are  documents  gathered  and 
autograph  essays  written  by  the  noted  Jose  Fernando  Remirez. 
They  deal  mainly  with  ancient  Mexico,  where  his  interests  were 
centred,  but  some  of  them  relate  to  the  United  States.  Among 
these  is  a  collection  of  original  "  Documentos  sobre  Caspar  de 
Villagra  ",  author  of  the  metrical  history  of  New  Mexico,  part  of 
them  signed  in  the  hand  of  Onate;  copies  of  various  more  or  less 
well-known  New  Mexico  documents ;  a  fragment  of  a  Jesuit 
critica  of  the  Benavides  account  of  the  apparition  of  the  venerable 
Maria  Jesus  de  Agreda;  and  a  forty-three  page  study  of  the  Co- 
manche  nation  by  Ramirez  himself.23 

All  of  these  Museo  papers  are  kept  in  the  library,  which  is  open 
to  the  public  from  9:30  to  12:30  in  the  morning  and  from  3:30  to 
6:30  in  the  afternoon. 

The  manuscript  materials  in  the  Biblioteca  Nacional  are  not 
many  in  the  aggregate,  yet  there  are  a  few  nuggets  about  which 
investigators  of  special  topics  would  wish  to  know.  Some  of  these 
are  fragments  of  series  contained  in  the  Archivo  General  y  Publico. 
I  have  already  mentioned  part  of  one  and  all  of  another  Bonilla 
compilation  relative  to  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  A  larger  col- 
lection is  that  of  about  forty  bound  volumes  of  documents  accumu- 
lated as  an  incident  to  the  administration  of  real  hacienda  during 
the  eighteenth  century.  They  consist  of  royal  cedulas,  viceroys' 
decrees,  official  reports  and  expedients*  concerning  the  various 
branches  of  the  royal  revenue.  In  them  is  to  be  found  a  large 
amount  of  information  concerning  the  Spanish  economic  and 
administrative  systems.  Many  rare  pamphlets  and  some  manu- 
scripts are  gathered  into  the  various  series  of  "  Documentos  para  la 
Historia  de  Mexico  "  listed  in  the  history  division  of  the  library's 
catalogue.  Single  manuscript  volumes  or  documents  deserving  of 

23  Of  more  interest  than  importance  in  this  connection  are  the  sixty-odd 
volumes  of  original  records  from  the  archive  of  the  Inquisition.  These  are  saiti 
by  Senor  Don  Luiz  Gonzalez  Obregon,  who  has  made  a  thorough  study  of  them, 
to  be  the  cream  of  a  much  larger  collection  to  which  the  1,200  or  1,300  volumes 
in  the  Archivo  General  y  Publico  belong.  They  seem,  however,  to  contain 
nothing  relating  specifically  to  the  United  States. 


523  H.  E.  Botton 

mention  are:  (i)  a  copy  of  Mange's  "  Luz  de  Tierra  Incognita", 
containing  at  the  end  Kino's  "  Relacion  Diaria  "  of  his  entrada  into 
Pimeria  in  1698  (dated  at  N.  S.  de  Dolores,  December  8,  1698)  ; 
(2)  a  copy  of  Nicolas  de  la  Fora's  "  Relacion  "  of  his  expedition  to 
New  Mexico  in  1766  in  company  with  the  Marques  de  Rubi  for  the 
purpose  of  inspecting  the  northern  establishments — an  expedition 
that  led  to  a  complete  revision  of  the  northern  military  and  mis- 
sionary frontier;  (3)  still  another  Bonilla  compilation  contained  in 
the  Biblioteca  is  the  volume  called  "  Reconocimiento  De  los  quatro 
establecimientos  que  el  Ymperio  Ruso  ha  formado  al  Norte  de  la 
California".  It  contains  many  of  the  important  original  documents 
concerning  the  Martinez  exploration  of  1788,  including  diaries  and 
maps. 

Besides  the  -manuscripts  listed  in  the  history  division  of  the 
library's  catalogue,  others  will  appear  in  the  forthcoming  division  of 
jurisprudence.  With  few  exceptions  the  manuscripts  are  kept  in 
the  office  of  the  director,  and  may  be  examined  only  with  his 
permission.  His  office  is  usually  open  from  12  m.  to  2  p.  m.  and 
from  4  to  8  p.  m. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  the  archives  of  the  active  secretariats 
contain,  primarily,  materials  that  bear  dates  subsequent  to  the  revo- 
lution. Nevertheless,  occasional  groups  of  earlier  documents  are 
to  be  found  in  them.  I  have  already  referred,  in  a  note,24  to  the 
papers  in  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations  relative  to  the  im- 
prisonment of  General  James  Long.  Two  other  groups  in  the 
same  archive  may  be  mentioned.  One  of  these  consists  of  part  of 
the  papers  taken  by  the  Spanish  authorities  from  Lieutenant 
Zebulon  M.  Pike.  The  correspondence  that  accompanies  them 
shows  that  these  papers  lay  in  Chihuahua  for  twenty  years  after 
Pike  was  relieved  of  them  there  in  1807,  and  that  they  were  then 
hunted  up  and  sent  to  the  City  of  Mexico  for  the  use  of  the  Texas- 
Louisiana  Boundary  Commission.  The  list  made  when  they  were 
confiscated  shows  twenty-one  numbered  documents.  The  first 
eighteen  and  the  last  of  these  are  now  preserved  in  the  archive 
named,  to  which  the  whole  collection  was  returned  by  the  Boundary 
Commission  in  1828.  It  is  to  be  deplored  that  the  two  missing 
documents  are,  perhaps,  those  of  greatest  interest — Pike's  principal 
diary  and  a  book  containing  personal  observations  and  memoranda 
of  his  correspondence.25  The  other  group  to  which  I  alluded  con- 

~*  See  page  518,  note  20. 

28  These  papers  are  in  caxa  1817-1824,  Seccion  de  Asuntos  Internacionales, 
in  a  carpeta  labelled  "  Sobre  busca  y  entrega  a  la  Comision  de  limites  de  los  docu- 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  524 

sists  of  a  part  of  the  Pichardo  Papers.  In  1807  Father  Jose 
Pichardo  was  appointed  by  the  viceroy  to  succeed  Talamantes,  who 
before  his  untimely  death  had  worked  two  years  as  commissioner 
to  report,  through  historical  investigation,  on  the  true  Texas- 
Louisiana  boundary.  After  five  years  of  additional  labor,  Pichardo 
submitted  to  the  viceroy,  in  February,  1812,  a  ponderous  study  of 
nearly  all  phases  of  the  history  of  Texas  and  of  many  phases  of 
that  of  New  Mexico  and  Louisiana.  This  work  has  frequently 
been  referred  to  in  Mexican  manuscript  records  and  has  for  some 
time  been  sought,  by  myself,  at  least,  but  I  doubt  if  it  has  been  used 
since  Teran  returned  it  in  1828.  The  report,  which  is  of  true 
Spanish  length,  filling  more  than  four  thousand  quarto  pages,26  is 
in  the  same  section  as  the  Pike  Papers,  together  with  part  of 
Pichardo's  documents.  Many  other  Talamantes-Pichardo  docu- 
ments are  in  the  Archive  General  y  Publico.27  Over  a  year  ago  I 
found  in  the  cartography  department  of  the  Secretariat  of  Fomento 
the  original  map  made  by  Pichardo  in  1811  to  accompany  his  report, 
together  with  the  rare  original  of  the  La  Fora  map,  made  about 
1767.™ 

One  of  the  puzzles  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  solve  is  the 
whereabouts  of  the  many  other  old  maps  of  different  parts  of  the 
Southwest  that  are  mentioned  in  the  sources  and  whose  accompany- 
ing documents  are  available.  Of  course,  the  originals  or  copies  of 
many  of  them  were  sent  to  Spain,  but  it  is  inconceivable  that  copies, 
at  least,  should  not  have  been  kept  in  Mexico.  In  fact,  in  a  good 
many  instances  we  have  proof  that  copies  or  the  originals  were  kept 
but  where  the  larger  part  of  them  now  are  is  a  mystery.  A  con- 
siderable number,  it  is  true,  are  here  and  there  in  the  Archive 
General  and  the  Biblioteca  Nacional.  A  much  larger  number  are 
in  carpetas  2,  3,  n  and  12  of  the  department  of  cartography  of  the 
Secretariat  of  Fomento,  among  them  being  the  Pichardo  and  La 
Fora  maps  already  mentioned.  But  these  four  boxes  contain  only 
the  merest  fraction  of  what  should  be  in  existence. 

mentos  q.  se  tomaron  al  viagero  Paike  ".  Such  of  them  as  are  historically  impor- 
tant and  have  not  been  printed  heretofore  will  be  published  in  the  next  number 
of  this  journal. 

28  The  copy  of  the  report  and  the  accompanying  documents  which  in  1842 
were  in  the  hydrographic  department  of  the  Secretaria  de  Govierno  of  Spain, 
filled  fifteen  volumes.  See  correspondence  of  the  Mexican  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Relations  with  the  Minister  to  Spain,  in  the  same  archive,  Seccion  de  Mexico, 
•caxa  1842-1844. 

27  See  Bolton,  in  the  Quarterly  of  the  Texas  State  Historical  Association, 
VII.  210-212. 

a  My  attention  was  first  called  to  the  collection  of  old  maps  in  this  depart- 
ment by  Mr.  William  Beer  of  the  Howard  Memorial  Library  of  New  Orleans. 


525  H.  E.  Bolton 

Having  spent  on  the  early  period  nearly  all  of  the  space  allotted 
to  me  and  not  having  completed  my  investigations,  I  can  only  sug- 
gest here  what  there  is  for  later  times,  a  period  of  greater  interest 
to  most  of  us,  perhaps,  than  the  other.  Some  groups  of  papers 
of  recent  date  bearing  on  the  Southwest  are  contained  in  the 
Archive  General  and  the  Biblioteca  Nacional,  but  they  cannot  be 
mentioned  in  the  brief  resume  which  follows.29  In  my  work  I  have 
not  proceeded  very  far  with  the  examination  of  the  department 
archives,  which,  as  I  said,  contain  most  of  the  records  accumulated 
since  1821  ;  but  even  now  I  can  pronounce  three  of  them  rich  in 
materials  for  the  history  of  the  relations  between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico  since  that  date.  These  three  are  the  secretariats  of 
Foreign  Relations,  War,  and  Fomento,  or  Public  Improvements. 

The  names  of  these  departments  indicate  their  special  functions 
and  the  general  classes  of  materials  which  we  might  expect  to  find 
in  their  archives.  In  general,  the  materials  of  these  archives  are 
contained  in  legajos  or  boxes,  which  are  classified  into  sections  on 
the  basis  of  subjects  treated.  So  far  as  I  have  examined,  the  most 
important  section  of  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  War  is  that  of 
Military  Operations.  This  contains,  primarily,  correspondence  of 
the  Secretary  of  War  with  the  officers  in  the  field  and  with  other 
departments  of  government  directly  concerned  in  active  operations, 
principally  those  of  Hacienda  and  Foreign  Relations.  In  the 
Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations  there  is  extensive  diplomatic  and 
consular  correspondence  concerning  nearly  all  exterior  political  rela- 
tions ;  while,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  report  at  present,  the  most  im- 
portant materials  in  the  Secretariat  of  Fomento  are  the  old  mope 
and  other  documents,  including  old  maps,  concerning  the  Anglo- 
American  colonization  of  the  Southwest  and  industrial  concessions 
to  Americans  in  more  recent  times.  Since  two  or  all  of  these  de- 
partments, in  many  cases,  contain  documents  relating  to  the  same 
subject,  I  shall  not  treat  separately  each  archive,  but  shall  only 
mention  some  of  the  principal  topics  for  which  they  collectively 
contain  material. 

Concerning  Anglo-American  colonization  before  the  Mexican 
War  there  are  in  the  secretariats  of  Fomento  and  Foreign  Relations 
hundreds  of  applications  for  lands  in  Texas  and  other  parts  of  the 
Southwest;  schemes  proposed  by  Mexicans  and  foreigners  to  offset 
Anglo-American  aggrandizement  by  planting  in  the  Southwest 

29  It  may  be  noted  that  all  of  the  records  of  the  general  archive  of  the 
Secretariat  of  Justice  down  to  1886  have  recently  been  sent  to  the  Archivo 
General. 


The  Archives  of  Mexico  526- 

colonies  of  Europeans;  maps  of  lands  asked  for;  and  records  of 
concessions  granted  or  refused.  The  mass  of  documents  concerning 
Anglo-American  colonization  in  Texas  alone  after  1821,  would 
probably  fill  fifteen  or  twenty  large  volumes.  Of  greatest  single 
interest  among  them,  perhaps,  are  the  many  papers  relating  to  the 
efforts  of  Moses  and  Stephen  F.  Austin,  although  the  material  seems 
to  be  relatively  full  for  other  leading  empresarios.  One  of  the 
colonization  projects  of  considerable  antiquarian  interest,  at  least, 
is  that  proposed  to  the  Mexican  government  in  1826  by  Robert 
Owen.  His  memorial,  present  in  his  own  handwriting,  asks  for  a 
concession  of  all  Texas,  with  guaranteed  independence  and  pro- 
tection, as  a  place  in  which  to  test  on  a  large  scale  his  favorite 
plan,  which  he  outlines,  of  regenerating  humanity. 

Parallel  with  the  plans  for  Anglo-American  colonies  are  the 
fears  of  Anglo-American  aggression,  then  of  revolution  in  Texas. 
Giving  expression  to  these  fears  there  are  in  the  secretariats  of 
Foreign  Relations  and  War  bewildering  quantities  of  correspondence 
with  local  authorities  and  diplomatic  agents.  In  this  connection 
may  be  noted  the  bundle  of  papers  in  the  Secretariat  of  War  which 
give  the  details  of  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Stephen  F.  Austin. 
For  California  and  New  Mexico  there  are  many  documents,  dated 
between  1830  and  1840,  concerning  political  disturbances  caused, 
according  to  the  reports,  by  Americans  and  factious  Spaniards,  as 
well  as  reports  regarding  the  movements  of  the  Russians.  The 
Oregon  migration  also  calls  for  the  use  of  much  ink  and  paper. 

What  appear  to  be  very  complete  files  of  correspondence  be- 
tween the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  frontier  military  authorities 
from  1830  to  1845  fill  about  thirty-five  legajos  of  some  1,200  pages 
each.  In  them  are  the  original  reports,  not  only  of  the  general 
movements  of  Americans  and  Mexicans  during  this  momentous- 
period,  but  also  Mexican  reports  of  the  principal  military  engage- 
ments of  the  Texas  War.  Notable  among  the  latter,  of  course, 
are  those  of  the  recapture  of  San  Antonio  by  the  Mexicans,  the- 
fall  of  the  Alamo  and  the  defeat  of  Santa  Anna  at  San  Jacinto.  I 
had  the  unique  experience  of  breaking  the  seals,  in  the  presence 
and  with  the  permission  of  the  archivero,  of  packages  containing 
some  fifteen  personal  letters  and  official  orders  addressed  to  Santa 
Anna  about  the  time  of  his  capture  but  never  delivered  because  of 
that  event.  It  is  interesting  to  note,  as  a  reflection  of  the  Mexican 
view  of  events,  that  from  1830  on  to  1835  the  Texas  bundles  are 
marked  "  The  Revolution  in  Texas  ",  as  though  the  revolution  were- 


527  H.  E.  Bolton 

already  a  fact  at  the  earlier  date,  while  those  from  1835  to  1845 
are  marked  "  The  Texas  Campaign  ",  as  though  the  war  had  con- 
tinued for  a  decade,  instead  of  ending  at  San  Jacinto,  the  usual 
American  view.  The  views  expressed  by  the  labels  seem  to  prevail 
in  the  documents. 

The  secretariats  of  War  and  Foreign  Relations  combined,  con- 
tain voluminous  reports  of  the  raids  and  counter-raids  across  the 
borders  between  the  time  of  the  Texas  Revolution  and  that  of  the 
Mexican  War.  For  the  Texas-Santa  Fe  expedition,  for  example, 
there  are  not  only  rumors  and  reports  of  the  approaching  expedi- 
tion and  accounts  of  the  capture  and  imprisonment  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, but  also  many  papers  taken  from  the  captives,  as  well  as 
autograph  letters  subsequently  written  by  them  to  the  United  States 
minister  to  Mexico,  in  which  they  quite  uniformly  explain  their 
misunderstanding  of  the  enterprise.  For  the  only  less  famous  Mier 
expedition  there  is  the  same  wealth  of  material,  touching,  it  would 
seem,  every  important  phase,  not  excepting  the  romantic  break  for 
liberty  and  the  tragic  decimation  of  the  unfortunates.  Concerning 
the  Mexican  War  of  1846-1848  there  are  some  fifty  large  legajos  in 
the  one  section  named  of  the  archives  of  the  Secretariat  of  War 
and  perhaps  nearly  as  much  material  in  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign 
Relations. 

In  the  archive  of  the  Secretariat  of  Foreign  Relations  there  are 
extensive  files  of  correspondence  relative  to  the  connection  of  the 
United  States  government  with  all  phases  of  Southwestern  affairs 
after  1821  ;  files  of  treaties  and  records  of  their  negotiation;  reports 
of  the  various  boundary  commissions;  diplomatic  correspondence 
with  the  Confederacy ;  and  endless  records  of  claims  that  grew  out 
of  Southwestern  border  troubles  extending  over  the  last  three- 
quarters  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  above  brief  summary  of  the  results  of  an  incompleted  task 
will  give,  I  hope,  some  idea  of  the  extent  and  importance  of  the 
materials  of  the  kind  in  question  contained  in  the  central  public 
archives  of  Mexico.  To  those  who  are  conversant  with  the 
bibliography  of  Southwestern  history  it  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
sources  described,  particularly  those  for  the  nineteenth  century,  have 
been  all  but  unused.  Indeed,  I  should  shrink  from  presenting  a 
view  of  these  later  materials  so  very  general  that  it  contains  little 
but  the  obvious,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  students  seem  to  have 
ignored  the  obvious  regarding  these  recent  materials  in  the  Mexican 
archives.  HERBERT  E.  BOLTON. 


